ACE Team have just announced the excellent news that they’re already working on a sequel to Zeno Clash, the first-person beat-em-up we poured praise upon last month. Zeno Clash 2, as it’s currently known, will take place after the events of the first game, continuing the adventures of Ghat, this time in a larger world, with mysterious “RPG elements”.

There’s to be more about Father-Mother, the peculiar Golem about whom so little was revealed, as well as promised new characters. ACE Team also explain that it’s going to be a bigger game this time. Interestingly so.

“ACE Team wants the next installment to be much larger in scope, so the new game will feature open ended gameplay with large explorable environments and RPG elements. The unique melee combat system that made the first game a success will also be expanded to feature even more brutal and engaging gameplay.”

There’s also news of a new patch for the original Zeno Clash, which amongst fixes and so on will add health and time counters for the Challenge Mode. And there’s promises of new DLC for the game due in a few weeks.

Zeno Clash 2 is currently in super-early stages, but as soon as there’s more details we’ll grab ACE by the collar, punch them three times, then knee them in the face until they tell us all about them.

Hopefully, the’ll have enough funds to make a proper RPG with an open world – even if it’s nothing too large, Zeno Clash was just asking for the wonderful designs to be put to a better use, then just a short linear melee-fighting game.

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This is excellent news, I bought Zeno Clash purely because I wanted to wander around the world I saw in the screenshots, so an open world sequel is just about the bestest thing they could do.

Some thoughts occur about grading this excellent news RPS style…for reviews they give out highly sought-after Optimus thumbs. But what about great development news like this? Obviously we can’t use Optimus again so how about a lesser Transformer? We start here with Bumblebee thumbs, Extra cool news gets Jazz thumbs…hey, really bad news (DRM issues, etc) could get an evil Decepticon! starscream or Megatron…

Great news! Ace didn’t leave much doubt as to their sequel intentions I suppose, considering the ending of Zeno Clash (which I won’t spoil for anyone here who hasn’t finished it), but I’m glad to hear they’re opening up the world some more. I felt Zeno Clash only scratched the surface of the weird and wonderful punk fantasy world they created, which was my only real disappointment with the game.

It’s such a reassuring word, isn’t it? “It’s not that I don’t understand, it’s that they’re not as clever as they’re pretending to be.”

Which is not so say that it’s always unwarranted – but I bet it’s invoked a lot more often than it should be because it makes the critic (and their audience) feel better about themselves.

Though in fairness I think I understand where the complaint comes from here, even if I don’t think it’s quite the right word. There were a few parts in Zeno Clash where I felt it was assuming a bit more gravitas than it had earned. Lots of games do that though – expecting the player to care about something just because we’re told to.

But then again, part of Zeno Clash’s charm to me was how completely straight faced it was, even when it’s a bonkers melange of bird people and explosive possums. Overall I’d say that it contributed more to the atmosphere and character of the game than it detracted.

This is excellent news. I just hope they can make do on their ambitions this time. We shall see, but whatever the case, they’ve already guaranteed a purchase from me.

I fail to see what was pretentious about the game either. It was a delightfully inspired Dying Earth style punk fantasy game (Don’t forget Hieronymus Bosch and John Blanche) with one of the most engaging and rewarding melee systems this side of Chronicles of Riddick. Sure, it had one of the most frustrating cliffhangers since Soul Reaver, but the game itself was a gem.

I wonder if more people will be using this method: start with a small game, relatively low cost and low risk, and when it proves its worth, release a bigger sequel. The limited scope of such a first game could allow you to try something new without going broke on it.

Great stuff! Now it’s going to be a long sit and wait for this new game. At least Zeno Clash was almost finished by the time I started getting excited about it.
All well, I’m just glad they’re starting already, and that the first game was apparently profitable enough to warrant it. If they have another half-price preorder, I’ll have to buy an extra copy for some unknowing friend who has yet to discover how awesome ACE Team is :)

I agree with Angel Dust that the character-based humor was the best part, and enjoyed the relationship between Dan and Ben. I think the humor is good overall still, or at least better than any other AGS game I’ve played.

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